It is standard to ship fluent materials--liquids and particles--in large blow-molded containers that are usually carried on pallets. Such containers frequently hold up to 1 m.sup.3 and represent a very efficient way to contain and transport various materials many of which are fairly volatile and/or otherwise capable of exploding or, at the very least, burning if ignited. Loading and unloading the containers, typically by pouring the contents in or out, generates substantial electrostatic energy that can create a spark that can result in ignition of the material and a dangerous accident.
In order to suppress such electrostatic energy it is standard to make the plastic of the containers conductive so that any charge is quickly carried off and never gets large enough to make a spark. When such a container is carried on a so-called cage-type pallet where it is surrounded by a heavy-duty metal mesh that is highly conductive, the result is fairly good anti-static protection.
Such conductivity of the container itself is obtained by incorporating conductive carbon particles into the resin from which the container is blow molded. Since it is normally inconvenient to divide up the production line for such containers, even those that do not need the antistatic protection are formed of the carbon-filled plastic. This adds unnecessarily to the cost of production of these containers.
In addition mixing carbon fibers with the plastic of the container does not produce a high degree of conductivity. Even when carbon black is used, resistances can be in the 10,000 ohm range, where in practice the desired resistance is about 0.1 ohm.